[ cheers and applause ] >> announcer: this is "nightline." >> tonight, lotto fever breaks. the winning numbers revealed just hours ago. the big office pools. >> see if we get the $1.6 billion with a "b." >> and even bigger dreams. >> this is my roll around town car. >> our obsession with mega jackpots. plus -- ♪ the ex's and oh's ofelle king's roller coaster ride through stardom. >> i was scared and i felt lonely. >> her sophomore album mending the strained relationship with her famous fat

but first, the "nightline" five.

good evening, and thank you for joining us. it's the jackpot of our jackpots. the mega millions have turned into more than a billion dollars and tonight the wait is over. there's at least one winner in

south carolina, those six numbers turning a dream into a life-changing reality. ep at long s adrian be. last, there's a winner. >> it's a record-breaking $1.6 billion. >> reporter: they're the numbers we've all been waiting for. >> that mega ball number is 5. >> reporter: mega millions went mega billion in the world's largest drawing worth a whopping $1.6 billion. >> i'll go crazy with the whole thing. i wouldn't know what to do with it. >> reporter: a record-breaking jackpot with the unprecedented cash payout of $904 million. across the country, people have been catching lotto fever. >> i'm holding the lucky money right here. >> reporter: 75% of the more than 302 million possible combinations were expected to be sold before tuesday night's drawing. >> i bought five tickets. it's not how many you buy. you got to get the lucky ticket. ♪ i want to be a billionaire so freaking bad ♪

>> reporter: bruno mars' timely hit could be this new york mom's theme song. >> hi. i'm here to buy 5,535 new york mega millions tickets. >> great. we'll get that going for you. >> reporter: lindsey is one of 2,000 moms who met in this facebook group, all of them hopeful they get a piece of the jackpot. it's a phenomenon that's captured the imagination of people from every walk of life, dreaming of what to buy first after cashing in that winning ticket. >> i would buy houses for all of my children. >> reporter: you could buy the buffalo bills football team or 1.6 million iphone xs. that's enough to pass one out to every person in philadelphia. with its nightly $30,000 price tag, you could stay in this luxury suite at the four seasons hotel new york every night for the rest of your life and still have hundreds of millions of dollars left to spend. maybe consider a new set of wheels. this is my roll around town car.

no, this is the bugate. it's worth just under $2 million. 1,000 horsepower. top speed of 260 miles per hour. and it's currently the most expensive car that manhattan motor cars has on its lot. hi, hi. >> welcome. >> reporter: i'm so excited. look at this gorgeous place. or perhaps you'd prefer to move on up. this feels rich. to a penthouse. >> you have a full view down to the south. >> reporter: douglas is selling this apartment in soho with enviable 360-degree views of manhattan, three blocks, two grills and a sunken jacuzzi. so private. you could afford to buy it 92 times with its more than $17 llrice gd e some money i the banke i we have 25 mega bal that you choos from. >> reporter: my colleague talked to john crow as he prepared to call it's mega millions.

>> you're live on television. >> $1.6 billion. >> what's going through your mind? >> really that somebody's life is going to change. like this is a record-breaking jackpot, and it's exciting to know that i'm calling numbers that can change somebody's life. >> reporter: the mega millions game was recently changed, making it harder to win, but it's creating those bigger jackpots. and there's still wednesday night's powerball drawing, worth an estimated $620 million. the cash value, $354.3 million. winning puts you in the ranks of these happy folks. laurie finkle stein and her chio thr office powerball pool. >> my husband looked it up and he said, babe, i think it's a million. >> reporter: the real estate team claimed $1 million total, and they hope lightning strikes twice. >> we're going to buy some tickets tomorrow and see if we get the $1.6 billion with a "b."

>> reporter: but back in 2015, one member of the team told my colleague, debra roberts, that that money is all gone. >> what did you do with the money? >> honestly, i glblew it. >> did you have a good time? >> i had a great time. >> reporter: the all-too familiar lesson, lottery winnings are not necessarily a golden ticket to happiness. >> mr. andrew jack whittaker. >> reporter: in 2002, west virginia native andrew whittaker woke up on christmas morning to the biggest gift of all time. >> i was hoping i'd win it but i never believed anybody could win it. >> reporter: he'd won the powerball jackpot of $315 million. overnight, he became a television celebrity. >> i need $68,000 or i'm going to lose my home. >> reporter: he ended up giving away, he says, at least $50 million in houses, cars, and cash. he was robbed, even blackmailed, and eventually lost much more. . he believes because of a drug habit his winnings paid for.

>> i pretty much lost everything i held dear in my life. >> reporter: and he and his wife divorced. >> money doesn't rule the world. money is not what makes people happy. you know, family is what is dear. >> reporter: but some lottery winners do get their happily ever after. >> certainly possible to have a happy life as a lottery winner. >> reporter: washington, d.c., based attorney david wilmont a stery clitnce approached 2009. >> he came with his grandson and i invited them in and we sat down and he reached into his jacket pocket and he pulled an envelope out and he said, i am the winner of the lottery. and i want you to represent me. >> reporter: wilmot showed him how to protect his $144 million windfall. >> i suggested to him that in

the district of columbia, you can remain anonymous, and it would be in his best interest to do so. >> reporter: they created an llc which set the mystery client up for a happy and undisturbed life. >> he's doing just fine. if you have money and you manage it wisely, you can have more money. >> reporter: wilmot's client may have benefitted but not everyone views the lottery so positively. the lottery system has been derided as a de facto tax on the poor while a gallup poll shows that a higher percentage of upper income families report buying tickets in the last fam likely to spend a higher percentage of their income on smaller pots like instant scratchoffs. the problem is getting people to save instead of spend. >> saving is the antithesis of fun. >> reporter: it's why michael and his team saw an opportunity to create grand. >> we're grand.

we make saving feel more like winning. >> reporter: an app that lets people feel like they're playing the lottery but designed to get them to save. >> think of it as a gummy vitamin for your finances. it's doing something you don't like to do it and makes it fun and tasty and incentivizes you to do it. >> reporter: the weekly prize ranges from $1,000 to $25,000, all partly funded by the $2 monthly fee on users. every dollar a user saves is an entry to their weekly jackpot. >> reporter: instead of spending $10 down at the liquor store, i just save $10 of my own money. >> reporter: if you don't win, the money you saved remains in your account. but for those hopeful moms in new york who spent tens of thousands on lottery tickets, their billion dollar hopes are now hanging on just six numbers. >> it's hope. right here. it's good luck. we need everybody to, you know, touch it for good luck. >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm adrian in new york.

>> our thanks to adrian and once again, there's at least one winning ticket of the record mega millions jackpot. that ticket was sold in south carolina. next, how singer elle king has no shame in sharing her painful struggle. ♪ every night you go ♪ shame, shame, shame cancer survivor. surviving for five years is a big deal. i had so many people at ctca helping me find a way to go through the treatments. the reality of cancer is not everybody survives. at ctca, they have a huge celebrate life event. that was amazing, because the whole day was about all of the survivors. i'm excited about my future. visit cancercenter.com to schedule an appointment now.

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connecting people... ...uniting the world. ♪♪ ♪ ex's and the oh's, they haunt me like a ghost they want me ♪ ♪ they won't let go

>> she topped the charts with "ex's and oh's." but singer elle king's overnight success quickly turned dark and she tackles her struggles through her song. ♪ one, two, three, they going to run back to me ♪ >> reporter: it was this mega hit that made elle king a star. her soulful voice and that track earning her two grammy nominations. >> i went from being nobody and playing really, like, small clubs to, like, the exact -- talk about 180, you know? >> reporter: and before she knew it, she was performing alongsid the cmas. ♪ and for president obama at the kennedy center honors.

♪ oh, respect yourself >> reporter: but she's done a lot of living since. now at 29 years old, she's been married and divorced and she's got a second album to tell the tale. ♪ you just hurt too much but i'm fine ♪ ♪ i'll fix it all >> reporter: in songs like "sober" elle revealing her battle with substance abuse and depression. >> reporter: you've gone through a journey in the past three years. what have you learned about yourself? >> i've learned that i'm a lot stronger than i thought i was. i've learned that i can have boundaries and that i can say no to things and to people and that i do have enough respect for myself and my body and my time and my spirit. learning to say no is a huge thing. a huge thing. and it's really -- it's an uncomfortable thing. i'm getting red in my face right now. >> reporter: elle has learned a lot about herself, life, and love since her brief and she

says tumultuous marriage. she met her ex in 2016 and they secretly married three weeks later. but it didn't last. a year later, they were divorced. >> i think it's been pretty public news now that i had a pretty tumultuous relationship and kind of a not so perfect marriage. and my marriage had started ending early last year, and just, you know, things happened behind the curtain, and it's hard to keep a brave face. >> reporter: to cope, elle says she turned to drugs and alcohol. she became depressed and was diagnosed with ptsd. in one post, she wrote, i'm going through a pretty rough time right now but for once, i will not accept or admit defeat. i will get out of bed. i'll take expletive anti-depressants like i'm supposed to. >> i think it was maybe like i was crying out for help in a

weird way. i don't know, i think back to that time and i was just really lost and really scared and i felt really lonely, and i don't know. but the more i talked about it, the more i could start talking. i couldn't even look people in the eyes. i couldn't leave my house. i was just really low, but i tried to not just sit in it. and so i did the best i could where i was at. >> reporter: but ultimately, she says it was her band and her music that saved her. ♪ i don't need nobody >> reporter: when you talk about the last track on the album, "little bit of loving." every song hit me like in a different way but that one, you know, it leaves you thinking. and it seems like you really had a message that you wanted to get across there. >> the problem wasn't out there. the problem was inside of me. but i'm not broken. that song came to me in a really, like -- i was very lost at that time, and i was really struggling with ptsd.

somehow, this song just came to me. i was singing the, like, outro part of that song, which is like big voice singing. ♪ i die a little bit of love >> and it was the first time that i really felt, like this joy in months, and i remember, like, snapping back into my body and falling to my knees and crying and going, i'm so sorry, guys, i'm so sorry. and i looked up, and my bassist, paulie said to me, it's really nice to see you again, el le'veon be le. >> reporter: what was that moment like? >> it was tough leading up to that moment, but once it came, it was beautiful because like i said, i've been playing with elle for six years, and -- sorry, gets me a little emotional. to see my friend back with us, you know, the person that i know and care about is great.

>> it was really cool to see that, like, she was going through all this hard stuff and then there was a moment of, like, she realized, one, her music could pick her back up and two, this record could really save her life and i feel like it did. and i feel like we all got to be a part of it. >> reporter: now, elle is back right where her career started, small venues in brooklyn like rough trade, taking it all in. are you used to seeing your face on rolling stone yet? does it get old? >> it's an honor. if "roling stone" wants to review your album, it means that your out there who listen to record. >> reporter: her famous father, rob snider, is listening to. this morning on gma, her dad sending her a surprise message. >> i love you. i'm so proud of you and i'm so excited. >> reporter: it's a relationship that's evolved in the years since childhood. when she first made a cameo alongside him in "deuce bigelow." >> what are you watching? >> reporter: how has your relationship with your father grown and developed over the course of your childhood and

then now adulthood and career? >> well, my dad was following his dreams for a long time. we kind of met in the middle and we were like, let's drop all that [ bleep ]. i love you. we look alike. i don't know. my dad just showed up for me in such an incredible way when i was really needing him, and we have just become best friends. my dad was pretty big, you know, when i was a kid. >> huge. >> reporter: and everywhere we go, my dad's still, like, whoa, you can do it. every show, someone shouts, you can do it or rob schneider at me. there's a really lovely and warm encouragement that comes from both ends of us that he just wants to see me succeed and i want to see my dad succeed and he's very funny, and i wouldn't ever tell him this but i think s >> reporter: now a little older and much wiser, elle is hoping to prove to everyone that the best is yet to come.

have you reached your own mountaintop? what's next for you? >> i don't know. i don't know. i think -- aren't you always kind of climbing a mountain? and if you reach the top, wouldn't you want to climb another mountain? i would just assume that that's what it would be like. so, maybe i climb a bunch of peaks, right? >> reporter: that's awesome. for "nightline," brooklyn. and next, new york's finest with the fine surprise from one of its biggest fans. >> announcer: abc news "nightline" sponsored by mercedes-benz. -benz. ♪ from the start, the c-class was ahead of its time. [ indistinct radio chatter ] still, we never stopped making it stronger.

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an honorary chief officer. they gave her her very own uniform and brought a welcome committee of police horses and dogs. she will battle her cancer at home now with a damage of honor. badge of honor. how sweet is that. it was mark twain who said, kindness is the language the deaf can hear and the blind can see. thank you for watching "nightline," and thanks for the company, america. good night.